


Unsympathetic - part 3

by Bouncy_cat



Series: Sympathetic [4]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Mpreg
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-05-28
Updated: 2013-06-13
Packaged: 2017-11-06 04:55:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/414912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bouncy_cat/pseuds/Bouncy_cat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve digests the news. He's not happy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Steve stares at the ultrasound pictures a little more. Then he looks at Danny. “So you’re really-”

“Harboring a fetus, yes.” Danny interrupts him. He’s not quite ready to say the word pregnant, or hear Steve say it for that matter. He’s secure in his masculinity, but maybe not  _that_  secure. He doubts any man is.

Steve’s silent again, but Danny can practically see the gears turning in his head. Even Mr. Navy SEAL is going to need a little time to digest the fact that he managed to knock up a man, so Danny lets him stew a little and turns back to Davis. “So…now what happens?”

The doctor looks eager, like he’s about to rub his hands together in excitement. “Well,” he says, “when faced with an unknown medical condition, we take things one step at a time. The most important questions right now are how this is affecting your health and what allowed it to happen in the first place. So our first step will be to do some tests.”

Danny takes a swallow of his coffee and regrets it instantly. Now it’s lukewarm as well as bad. “What kind of tests are we talking about?”

“Bloodwork first. Your complete blood count and differential. Your ESR, or sedimentation rate, that’s a marker for inflammation. Renal panel, liver panel, lipid panel, blood glucose…all the things we would normally measure to asses someone’s general health.”

Alright, he can deal with that.  He’s had complete physicals before; they did pretty much the same then. “What else?”

“Genetic testing.”

Danny frowns.

“On you, not the fetus.” Davis hurries to assure him. “I assume you are somewhat familiar with genetics?”

“Somewhat yeah.” Being a detective pretty much ensures you know at least the basics about DNA and such.

“You know that DNA forms organized structures called chromosomes and humans have 23 pairs of these, 22 pairs of regular chromosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes that contain the genetic traits linked to a person’s sex. Women have two of the same kind of sex chromosome, called X.  Men have two different sex chromosomes.  One X and one called Y. When the female and male cells combine there two options. You either get an XY combination and a boy is born, or an XX combination for a girl.”

Davis gives him a look to see if he’s still following and Danny nods. So far he hasn’t heard anything he didn’t already know.

The doctor continues. “But it’s not always that simple. There are for example cases where people get XXY, Klinefelter’s syndrome, or XYY syndrome. Now, based on your physical appearance you have neither of these, but those examples illustrate that the chromosomal sex isn’t set in stone. There are even people who have two X chromosomes, so they are genetically women, but they are born male and have all male sexual characteristics and the only thing that really distinguishes them from other men is infertility. In your case we are going to check whether we can find any chromosomal disorder or anomaly that could be the cause for your current situation.”

“Something like that wouldn’t have come up during physicals before now?”

Davis shakes his head. “No, these types of genetic anomalies aren’t discovered unless they’re specifically looked for. Usually these cases present with an ambiguous development of sexual organs, significantly smaller external sexual organs for example, or presenting with both a penis and vagina.”

Danny blinks. “Like some sort of hermaphrodite?”

“I believe the latest term used is ‘intersex’. Apparently there were never reasons to look for such an anomaly in your case, so I’m assuming everything on the outside,” Davis looks down meaningfully, “is normal.”

Next to Danny Steve snorts. “It is,” he assures the doctor. “Not ambiguous  _at all_.”

The corner of Davis’s mouth twitches up at that but he quickly gets serious again. “Well, what we’ve seen on the inside is certainly a reason to look in into it. First and foremost though, we need to look at your health.”

His health... Danny asks the question that’s been running through his mind for a while now. “Doc, is it even possible? To actually carry the fetus to term I mean.”

Davis gives him an apologetic look. “Right now, I don’t know. Early development seems to have progressed the same way it would in any normal pregnancy, but there is no way of knowing if your body is capable of sustaining a suitable environment for the fetus to grow, and if it’s capable of handling the stress to your body. We would need to see on a day by day, week by week basis.”

Davis looks at him seriously. “That is,  _if_  you want try this. There is always the option of abortion. And I can pretty much guarantee you that in your case abortion  _would_ be the safer option.”

Danny looks down, rubs his hands over his face and breathes deeply. Maybe abortion should have been his first thought. It's the logical thing to do after all. But in all honesty, removing it hasn’t really crossed his mind.  Not since it stopped being a parasite and became something else altogether. And he keeps remembering Rachel’s first ultrasound…Gracie moving around just like the gummy-bear.

When he looks up Steve is studying him with a frown. “You want to keep it.” he says.

It’s a statement, not a question and damn the man for being observant because Danny’s not sure he’s ready for this conversation.

When Danny doesn’t answer immediately Steve looks away for a moment before meeting his eyes again. “I don’t like it.”

And yeah, with all of Steve’s issues maybe Danny should have seen that one coming, but it still stings. Because somehow, in the past hour, he’s gotten attached already and it hurts that Steve doesn’t want this with him. Suddenly Steve’s hand on his feels restrictive instead of comforting and he tries to pull his hand away.

Steve won’t let him.

He squeezes Danny’s hand, almost to the point of it being painful. “Danny,” he says, “it’s not-” he trails off.

Danny can see the wheels spinning again. Maybe because Steve’s getting his thoughts in order, maybe because he’s searching for the words to tell him something he doesn’t want to hear. Danny’s not sure. “Steve-”

“No. Just…let me say this okay? It’s not because I wouldn’t want to have a kid with you. What we have…I was sort of planning for that to be  _it_  for the rest of my life and that meant no kids other than Gracie. At least, I thought it did. So this is a surprise. A big surprise. And I have to get used to the idea, but us having a kid together is not the thing I have a problem with. You  _dying_  because of this…that’s what’s putting me off. Because that throws a big fucking wrench in the whole ‘growing old together’ plan.”

Danny’s eyes start to sting just a little and he blinks quickly, because Steve may suck with words but every now and then he manages to say something that hits Danny like a kick in the gut anyway. He’s suddenly a little lost for words so instead he squeezes Steve’s hand back. Steve’s good with non-verbal communication.  He’ll get the message.

There’s one little flaw in Steve’s logic though. “Babe, we risk our lives every day.”

Steve gives him a helpless look. “That’s different.”

And that’s pretty much the problem right there, Danny thinks. Out there, in the field, Steve has control. He likes to think so anyway. In Steve’s mind, his own actions pretty much decide the outcome of any given situation. In here, Steve has no control. If anything goes wrong he’s helpless, unable to do anything about it. Pretty much Steve’s biggest nightmare.   

Davis jumps in. “Well Mr. McGarret, maybe I can reassure you a bit. As I said, we don’t know what will happen, whether your partner’s body will be able to sustain the pregnancy, whether the fetus will continue to develop normally…but the fact that we know what’s happening reduces the risks significantly.  If you decide to continue with this we will be monitoring your partner’s health extremely closely. Should it take a turn for the worse we will be able to react very quickly.”

“And,” he continues, “keep in mind that you both do not have to decide about this right now. Your partner has carried the fetus for nine weeks already, without any apparent adverse effects on his health aside from morning sickness.”

Danny sees and feels Steve relax a little at that.

Another question, a rather uncomfortable question, pops into his mind. “How would it come out?”

“That would have to be through a C-section." Davis says. "The male pelvis isn’t fit for childbirth. The opening in the female pelvis is larger, the channel is shorter en the walls of the pelvis are more parallel to make birthing a child possible. Even if the womb  _is_ connected to the colon and there would theoretically be ‘a way out’ so to speak. The baby wouldn’t fit through the pelvis.  And aside from that the colon and the rectum aren’t meant to accommodate something the size of a fully formed baby.

Danny shudders at the thought.

“Now the womb doesn’t know this,” Davis continues, “and will probably at some point start contractions. I think the safest bet would be to plan a C-section sometime well before you are due. The baby might be premature but I believe the risks to both your health and the baby’s health will be smaller.  Nowadays we have great success caring for early births. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There is a long way to go before that time.”

“What about hormones” Steve blurts out. “How is that going to work? Can he even make the hormones needed to keep up a…pregnancy?”

Steve winces a little at the word. Danny’s glad he isn’t the only one who’s a little uncomfortable with the term.

“Well,” Davis says, “the hormones that we traditionally know as female hormones  _are_  very important during pregnancy. There are estrogen, progesterone and prolactin, among others. Most people assume those hormones belong specifically to the female sex, but that’s not true.  Just like women produce testosterone, which they need for their bones, their sex-drive and many other functions, men naturally produce estrogens. The same goes for progesterone. Progesterone is made in men by the adrenal glands and testes. Even prolactin occurs naturally in the male body, produced by different sources including the pituitary and the prostate gland.”

Well…that's news to Danny.  

“So,” Davis continues. “Danny’s body is certainly capable of creating these hormones and reacting to them. However, if things proceed as they would during a normal pregnancy he’s going to have to deal with far greater amounts of these hormones circulating through his body than normal. This is because the placenta -and since we have a living fetus, I’m assuming there  _is_  one- will start producing hormones too, including progesterone and estrogens. Particularly the amount of estrogen will be extremely high compared to the amounts normally present in the male body.”

“Bitch tits and shrunken balls.” Steve mutters suddenly. He’s staring ahead, non-seeing, like he’s remembering something.

“Excuse me?” Danny says pointedly, because  _what the hell_?

Steve’s head jerks up, back in the here and now, and he flushes.

Davis gives him a sharp look.

“I read about it,” Steve says quickly, with a shifty look at the doctor.

He’s so obviously lying, it’s almost funny.

Davis’s eyes narrow a little. “You’re not entirely wrong, although those two come about through different-”

“Hey!” Danny interrupts. “What are we talking about here? If we’re talking about symptoms I’d like to be informed you know, seeing as I’d be the one getting them.” They’re talking about his  _balls_  here. Anything that affects them, he wants to know about.

Davis looks at him. “I believe your partner is referring to the side-effects of anabolic steroid use.”

Danny’s confused. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Both symptoms he mentioned can be a result of increased estrogen levels. When body builders or other strength athletes take anabolic steroids,  _androgens_ , they need very high dosages, much higher than naturally occur in the body. Androgens can aromatize in the body into estrogens. The higher estrogen levels can then lead to gynaecomastia, growing glandular tissue in a man’s breast. Or ‘bitch tits’, as your partner so expressively put it.”

Steve has the decency to look embarrassed.

“Testicular atrophy, or ‘shrinking balls’ is another side-effect of taking androgens. The hypothalamus in your brain has a  mechanism that regulates the release of many hormones, including the hormones that stimulate your testes to produce testosterone. If this mechanism detects high amounts of androgens, which it recognizes as testosterone, then the hypothalamus will produce less of the hormones that are responsible for testosterone release, to keep the balance. So because body builders use an external source of testosterone, their brain tells their own body to stop producing it.  They will decrease or stop the production of natural testosterone and their balls will shrink. Estrogen has the same inhibiting effect on the hypothalamus, so high estrogen levels will have the same effect.”

_Holy shit_. “So, let me get this straight, if I go through with this…my balls are going to shrink? How much shrinkage are we talking about? Is it reversible? Will I still be able to get it up? Will it-”

Davis holds up his hands to stop the flow of words. “Calm down, Danny, because here comes the really interesting part…In order to  _stop_  their balls from shrinking, many body builders take the hormone HCG, Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin. HCG acts directly on the testes and keeps natural testosterone production going. Now, HCG is purified from the urine of pregnant women. Why? Because it is secreted by the  _placenta_. Do you see what I’m getting at Danny?”

_Maybe_. “I’m making my own medine?”

“Yes,” Davis sits back in his chair, looking satisfied. “I believe that the HCG produced by the placenta will counteract the negative effects of the estrogen it produces.”

Well, that’s a relief. “What about the gyna-thingy, the bitch tits?”

“Unavoidable”

_Well shit._

“With the high estrogen levels, and later on the prolactin, some growth of glandular breast tissue is inevitable. But this should be completely reversible.”

“Good. That’s good.” Danny throws a look at Steve.

Steve, who is sitting there quietly, entirely content not to be noticed, and Danny remembers how they got on the bitch tits, shrunken balls subject. “Hey,” he nudges Steve. “You haven’t used steroids, have you?” It was hard to imagine Steve, Mr. my body is my temple, doing something like that.

“No.”

Danny gives Steve an unimpressed look, because really, if he thinks he’s going to get away with an answer like that, he’s ‘gone round the bend’, as Rachel likes to say.

Steve ignores the look for a few seconds before slumping a little in his seat. “When we were in training,” he says, “there was a lot of pressure…to get stronger…lot of competition. It was rough, and one of us…he knew someone who used. We talked about it. Not just chatting. Seriously discussing how to get it, how much to use…I guess we were overheard and someone blabbed, because out of the blue the next week our training officer gave a talk about the effects of anabolic steroids. He had pictures and everything.”

“Bitch tits and shrunken balls?”

“His exact words. After that the steroids didn’t seem all that appealing anymore.”

Danny squeezes Steve’s hand. “I’m glad.” Then he leans over and whispers. “I like your balls just the way they are.” He’s sure Davis heard the words anyway, but figures the doctor will be polite enough to pretend he didn’t.

He turns back to the doctor. “So, aside from a case of man boobs, anything else I should be looking forward to?”

“Well, sorry to have to say this, but with heightened estrogen levels, you may also experience the joys of increased fat deposits, loss of muscle tone, fatigue, and lets not forget about low stress tolerance, mood swings, agitation and irritability.”

Steve suddenly perks up. “Hey doc,” he says, and he’s got the look on his face that says he’s about to blow something up, “with those extra organs being inside his body…is it possible that he’s had higher estrogen levels before now?”

Davis raises an eyebrow. “It’s possible.”

Next to Danny, Steve’s body twitches. And keeps twitching. And he’s stopped breathing. And Danny is going to kill him.  “Fuck you, Steven.” He says succinctly

Steve barks out a short laugh before reigning himself back in. He’s biting his lip and slowly turning an alarming shade of red.

Danny pulls his hand away and smack Steve’s arm. “Alright, you  _ass_. Let it out before you give yourself a brainbleed.”

And Steve laughs. “I told you.” He cackles. “I said it the very first day we met.” And he keeps laughing. “I told you-” he takes a gasping breath, “told you you were sensitive.”

He wants to be angry, should be angry, but in the face of Steve’s mirth he can’t keep a smile from creeping up his own face.

“You see what I have to deal with every day?” He tells Davis. “The first day we met, he threatens me with a gun, gets me shot, nearly breaks my arm. And then he tells me my wife left me because I’m too sensitive.”

Davis  is snickering, Steve can’t stop laughing, and Danny grins. They’re going to be okay.


	2. Unsympathetic - part 4

Danny watches Steve intently. They’re sitting in a couple of uncomfortable plastic hospital chairs in a waiting area, waiting for Danny’s turn to have his blood drawn.

Steve’s paging though some random magazine that he grabbed off a stack from a nearby table.

Since they left Davis’s office they haven’t really talked, but Danny’s not too worried. The silence is more of a ‘Steve processing’ silence than a ‘Steve freaking out’ silence. One thing is for sure; his partner is not actually reading the magazine he’s holding… because he’s been staring at a full-page ad for chocolate flavoured weight loss shakes for the last five minutes. Steve is a health-conscious guy, but that? Not really his style.   

“I guess you can go back to the office now,” he offers, “get back to your interrogation?” His partner always copes better when he’s doing something productive.

Steve looks up from the weight loss shakes and frowns at him. “Chin can handle it.”

“You sure?” he asks, trying to give him an out. “Maybe he can use a little back-up.” If Steve needs a little space he can have it. Danny can handle the rest of this hospital visit by himself…now that he knows he’s not _dying_. Well, not yet anyway.

Steve sits up straighter and crosses his arms. He has a stubborn look on his face. “Chin’s fine. Suspect is in custody. If something important comes up he’ll call.”

Alright, so Steve’s not leaving. That’s good. Probably. There’s silence again and Danny’s not entirely sure whether it’s a comfortable or an uncomfortable silence. He decides to break it either way. “What did you tell them anyway?”

“Who?” Steve asks, distracted.

Danny heaves a put upon sigh. “Who do you _think_ , Steven? The people you left back at office to do the interrogation. Our coworkers? Chin? Kono? Ring a bell?”

A minor version of aneurism face appears on Steve’s face and Danny rolls his eyes. Sometimes Steve’s lack of social skills still surprises him. “You just ran out of there didn’t you?”

“I told Chin to take over for me.” Steve says defensively.

“Babe…they know I’ve been sick. They’ve seen me puke at a crime scene that wasn’t even the least bit gory. They know I went to the doctor yesterday and that I wasn’t going to be in this morning because I had to go to another doctor…You think they won’t realize you ran out of there because of me? They’re going to be worried.”

“I’ll give them a call after you get your blood drawn.” Steve says. “There wasn’t much to tell them anyway. I just got a call from some nurse asking if I could come to the hospital. She wasn’t exactly a fountain of information.”

“She did say it wasn’t an immediate emergency, right?”

Steve gives him a wry smile. “She said it wasn’t an _immediately_ life threatening situation.”

 _Well shit._ That pretty much translates to ‘Please come to the hospital, your emergency contact is going to die, but don’t worry, it’s not gonna happen right this second’.

He reaches out and grabs Steve’s hand, interlacing their fingers. “I’m sorry,” he says, even though he knows it’s not his fault. “They didn’t know what it was yet. They said it was probably cancer, an aggressive form, and later they-”

“Mr. Williams?”

The door to the room where they draw the blood is open and a nurse is looking at him expectantly. It’s his turn.

Steve follows Danny into the room, ignoring the _look_ the nurse gives him, until she simply shrugs and motions for Danny to take a seat.

He sits down, gets the strap tied around his arm and then he turns his head away when the nurse is about to stick the needle in. Not because of pain, he barely feels the little pinprick, but the sight of his blood squirting out like that always unnerves him a little, so he doesn’t look at it.

Steve is standing ridiculously close, so coincidentally, when Danny looks away from the needle, he looks directly at Steve’s crotch.

It’s covered in cargo-pants of course, but as far as distractions go, it’s not bad.

Suddenly the pants seem to go a little tighter, outlining Steve’s…assets. Danny blinks and looks up at Steve. Who has his hands in his pockets, pulling them backwards to tighten his pants in the front. He has a stupid grin on his face.

Danny rolls his eyes but hey, the nice nurse lady is done already, having taken six vials of his blood.

“So,” Steve says when they’ve left the room. “Where to now?”

Danny shrugs. Davis is going to call him tomorrow about the first results from the blood tests; the genetic testing is going to take longer. “I guess we go back to-”

“Mr. Williams?”

A slender Japanese looking woman practically stalks towards them. “Good, you haven’t left yet.  I was hoping to catch you. I am Dr. Oshiro, Kuakini’s medical director. I’d like to have a word with you, so if you’d please follow me to my office?”

At Danny’s nod she turns and marches off with quick strides.

He and Steve share a quick look before hurrying after her. It’s a long walk to get to her office and the director doesn’t say another word the entire way. What is it about female doctors in this hospital?

When they reach her office she ushers them inside, closes and locks the door behind them en lowers the blinds before taking a seat behind her desk. “Would you like some tea or coffee?” she offers.

“No thank you.” He and Steve respond at the same time.

“Alright then, Mr. Williams, I have to say I was very surprised when I heard about your… unique condition, and a little sceptical too I have to admit. But I know Doctor Davis as an excellent doctor and he’s shown me some unmistakable images.”

She falls silent for a moment and Danny’s not exactly sure what’s she waiting for or what she wants to hear, so he simply nods.

She seems to take it as permission to keep going. “I’ve instructed my staff, the ones who know about this, to keep absolutely quiet about it, if they talk about this to anyone, and I do mean _anyone_ , who isn’t already in the know, they will lose their job.”

_O-kay…_

Isn’t that a bit harsh? Danny’s _unique condition_ was pretty big news to them, judging from their fascinated stares. He could imagine them wanting to-

“Good.” Steve says promptly, and like he really means it.

Danny frowns at him, but before he can say anything Oshiro continues.

“I know the news was very sudden and you haven’t had much time to process it, but have you thought about how you are going to handle this?”

Danny turns his frown at her. “We’re not having an abortion.”

“I know. Doctor Davis informed me. That wasn’t what I meant.”

“Danno,” Steve says quietly, “I think what the doctor means, is ‘have we thought about how we’re going to keep this a secret.”

A secret?

For just a few seconds he’s thinking _why?_ Until things finally start to click in his mind.

Right. A secret.

Because he’s a man, and he’s having a baby and it probably should have crossed his mind earlier…the fact that _this_ … is a big thing. Maybe a _huge_ thing. Not just to him and Steve and a couple of fascinated doctors, but to the entire freaking world.  

Oshiro nods. “If you want to keep this completely under wraps you’ll have to start thinking now about who will be registered as the mother. To be convincing she’ll need to start wearing a fake belly soon. Insurance is an issue too. You have good medical insurance but obviously if you want to keep this private we cannot actually declare any of the exams as prenatal care. We’ll declare it as diagnostic exams and health monitoring for an unknown medical condition, which is essentially the truth.”

“Wouldn’t it be in your best interest if this _did_ become public knowledge?” Steve asks, voice just shy of suspicious. “Kuakini hospital would become world famous within days.”

“Yes it would,” Oshiro admits promptly, “and should you ever decide to go public we would very much like to publish our research about your partner’s condition in medical journals. However, out first priority is your partner’s health and safety. The first ever child carried by a man would be nothing short of a miracle, but I’m afraid there are groups who wouldn’t consider it that way. At best they’d frown upon it, at worst they’d consider a child, born of two men, to be the anti-Christ.”

Steve and the doctor keep talking and Danny hopes that if they discuss something important Steve will tell him later, because there’s just no way he can focus on their discussion. And it’s not even the anti-Christ bit that has him reeling.

No, his mind is stuck on some woman being registered as the mother of his kid. His and Steve’s kid… _Their_ kid. Someone…some as yet unnamed woman is going to have rights to his baby. _Legal_ rights.

Judges always pick the mother over the father, unless she’s some kind of abusive alcoholic or drug addict. He can’t go through that again. He’s not going to survive having this child grow inside of him and then being reduced to seeing it once a week, if he’s lucky.  He’s-

“Danny, hey”

Steve shaking his shoulder snaps him out of his gloomy thoughts. His partner is looking at him with full-blown aneurism face. It probably wasn’t the first time he’d called his name.  

“You okay?”

“Yeah. Sure. Fine.” He knows he’s not particularly convincing, but Steve apparently decides to let it go in favour of getting them out of the hospital. He thanks the doctor, accepting her card, and says his goodbyes. Danny shakes her hand at the appropriate moment but honestly it’s all kind of a daze.

He snaps out of it when they’ve left the hospital building and Steve is steering him, with a hand on his back, towards the truck. 

“Steve, we came in separate cars remember? The camaro is parked over there.” He waves his hand to his left.

Steve is frowning and for a second Danny thinks he’s going to say he doesn’t want Danny to drive in this condition. In which case Danny’s going to kick him where it hurts. But after a short silence Steve just nods. “Right,” he says, but his hand lingers on Danny’s back like he doesn’t want to stop touching him. “Wait a sec.”

Steve pulls out his phone, jabs a few numbers and holds it to his ear, the hand still on Danny’s back rubbing tiny circles.

“Hey Kono- Yes, that’s why I’m- No. Yes. He’s alright. No, really.  They thought it was something, but it turned out they were wrong and he’s okay. No. No. Did Chin- Good, that’s good.  Listen Kono, I’m calling Danny in sick and I’m taking the rest of the day off, can you guys manage? … Okay. I will. Thanks Kono, I owe you guys.”

Danny considers giving Steve shit about calling him in sick, but really, it’s not like he’s going to be able to concentrate if he goes into work now. And distraction and police work, they don’t go together well.

Steve stuffs his phone back in his pocket and they stand there in the middle of the parking lot halfway between the truck and the camaro.

“I’ll see you at home?” Danny asks.  And it’s a stupid question because where else are they going to go if they aren’t going to 5-0 headquarters.

“Yeah” Steve says, but the hand on Danny’s back stays where it is.

“Okay.”

“Yeah” And then he’s pulling Danny in for a kiss. Not a quick peck either. It’s long and drawn-out and sweet.

They don’t do this normally. They don’t kiss and grope in public, and it’s mostly been Steve who was against the PDA’s. Apparently he’s changed his mind in light of recent developments. Danny can’t say he minds. 

Finally it’s Danny who pulls away. “Still in public, babe,” he says, and if he sounds a little breathless, who could blame him.

“I don’t give a damn.”

“Apparently not. Still, let’s not give more of a show than we already have okay? I’ll see you at home.”

Once he’s in the car, he just sits there and takes a couple of deep breaths. Then he snorts because the truck isn’t moving yet either and in all likelihood Steve’s in there taking a few deep breaths of his own.

He starts the car and pulls out. Steve catches up when he’s leaving the parking lot and for a while Steve’s right behind him. Until suddenly he’s not. He’s worried for a second until he realises he just drove past the shopping center and Steve probably went to get food or something.

When he arrives home, he feels a little lost.  What is he supposed to do now?  There’s so much to think about.  How is he going to hide it? Who are they going to tell? When is he going to have to stop working?  What the hell is he going to tell Gracie? Then his eye falls on one of his dirty shirts, thrown over the back of the chair. There are a couple of socks too.  Three of them. He has no idea where number four is.

He knows there’s another dirty shirt in the bedroom and a boxer short under the bed. Steve hasn’t noticed it yet and Danny’s been, well, too lazy to pick it up and put it in the laundry basket, where Steve insists dirty laundry belongs.

Now that he thinks about it, the laundry basket is pretty full...

\------------------------------------------------------

“Danny?” Steve calls out to him when he walks through the door.

Danny grabs the bed sheets he’s just taken off the bed and makes for the washing machine again. “What took you so long?” He calls back. “Do you have laundry?”

“What?”

“Laundry,” Danny shouts down the stairs, “Stuff, including but not limited to, clothes, that need to be washed.”

Steve pounds up the stairs and watches dubiously as Danny stuffs another load in the washing machine. “You’re doing laundry…”

“Astute observation babe, I’m proud of you.”

“ _Astute_? Really Danny? And why are you doing laundry?”

“Because it needs doing. I’m running out of clean shirts because you always insist on-”

“Danny, we need to talk.”

He takes a deep breath and feels his shoulders slump a little. “I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing much happens this chapter, hope it's not too boring.


	3. Chapter 3

Danny follows his partner down the stairs and into the kitchen. There’s a tiny bottle on the table along with three full bags of groceries. He picks the bottle up and stares at the label. 

Prenatal vitamins.

They’ve known for all of three hours and Steve has already gotten him prenatal vitamins. 

He puts the little bottle back down a little too firmly and points at the bags, still not ready for the conversation they’re about to have. So he stalls. “Are there perishables in there?”

Steve frowns at him before nodding reluctantly.

Grateful for the respite Danny pulls one bag towards him and starts unpacking. The first thing he pulls out he doesn’t even recognise. It’s a bag with something green and leafy that looks a little like a weed. He holds it up questioningly. 

“Spinach.” Steve says.

Right. Spinach. Popeye’s favourite. He should have recognised it, except he’s only ever bought those handy little frozen blocks of spinach and they don’t much resemble the original. And to be honest he’d only bought those twice, because frankly, he’s not a fan. And it turned out Gracie agreed with him. 

He puts the greens away and pulls the next thing from the bag. A big bag of walnuts. He doesn’t remember Steve ever buying those before. 

Next comes a large tub of greek yoghurt. 

“Steve,” he says to his partner, who is putting away a small tub of flax seeds, “was your brain still a little addled when you went shopping? Because I’m not seeing any of the stuff we actually eat on a regular basis.”

Steve’s face is stubborn yet resigned, like he expected Danny to be difficult about this. “This stuff is good for pregnant… people.”

“You asked?!”

“Of course not,” Steve says with a huff, “we’re trying to keep this a secret.” He crosses his arms defensively. “I googled.”

Danny sighs. His partner is going to be totally overbearing throughout all of this. “I want a malasada,” he mutters. 

“Processed sugars are bad for you and the baby.” 

\--------------------------------

Danny digs his toes into the sand and leans his head back against the lawn chair, staring up at the stars. His discussion with Steve didn’t go entirely as he expected…well…feared, to be honest. 

He’d expected a discussion about the dangers of this…pregnancy, about the difficulties it could cause…the danger to his life, the publicity if anyone finds out about it, the possible damage to their careers.

All in all a discussion he wasn’t particularly keen on having, because no matter how difficult it would be, his heart already made the decision to try this. Made it as soon as the little gummy bear waved its arms at him.

The thought that Steve was going to try to talk him out of it made him cringe. 

He should have known better though.

He should have realized that once a decision is made Steve doesn’t linger on difficulties or impossibilities. Some missions are unavoidably dangerous. You don’t sit around dreading everything that can go wrong; you prepare yourself to the best of your ability and try to solve problems even before they arise. And that’s what Steve does. 

Danny doesn’t always like everything the navy made his partner into, but right now he’s just grateful. Instead of the ‘I don’t think you should do this’-discussion Danny was expecting, he got the ‘I made a bulleted list of everything we need to arrange and every problem we might run into, and this is how we’re going to deal with it’-discussion. 

It was still a difficult conversation, but now, now they have plans. Steve has already called Mary. He hasn’t told her anything yet, besides that he needs to talk to her and it’s not bad news. They’re paying for her flight and she’ll be here in a couple of days. 

Steve is sure she’ll be willing to act the part of a pregnant woman. They’re going to tell people that she acted as a surrogate at their request, that Danny’s the biological father, and Steve is going to adopt. 

It’s still not easy to think of anyone besides him or Steve having rights to their kid, but he knows Mary, she’s a good person, and he trusts Steve when he says his sister will never try to keep Danny away from his kid. 

Tomorrow they’re going to tell Chin and Kono. Steve was hesitant about that at first, because if you want to keep a secret it’s best to tell as few people as possible. But trying to keep something like this from two tenacious detectives, even if one of them is a rookie, well it’s damn near impossible. And aside from that, they’re friends, and Danny’s glad that they’ll know. 

It feels good to have some kind of plan.

What feels even better is that as they talked about their plans Steve’s demeanour started to change. Instead of worry there was excitement in his voice and his eyes darted down to Danny’s belly several times with something like amazement. Maybe it’s wishful thinking but he thinks, maybe, he saw a little happiness there. 

Steve walks out onto the beach carrying a beer and a glass of juice. He hands Danny the juice and drops down on the lawn chair next to him. 

Danny gives the longboard a forlorn look. 

“Not gonna happen Danny.”

“I hate you.”

“I’ll get you alcohol free beer. For special occasions.”

“You’re too good for me,” he tells Steve, voice dripping with sarcasm. 

“Only nine months Danny.”

Danny snorts. “More like seven now. Even less, since they plan on delivering it early. It’ll probably be more like six months. Half a year… We- We can do that, right?”

“Yes we can.”

“So says the president”.

Steve plants his longboard firmly into the sand and rolls off his chair, crawling over to Danny’s. “We’re going to do this,” he says firmly, not a trace of doubt in his voice. 

“I love you.” The words come rolling out without any conscious decision on Danny’s part. Maybe the hormones are already taking over? 

“Keep that in mind when you’re the size of a small whale,” Steve mutters, then kisses him before he can get a word in edgewise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it was short, but I wanted to post something to show this AU hasn't been abandoned.

**Author's Note:**

> http://panda-pounce.tumblr.com/


End file.
